Friday, October 14, 2016

Making the Most of Every Minute

I am still trying to manage doing a bunch of things at once. There is everything connected with my writing like finishing the manuscript for a A TANGLED YARN and preparing for the release of HOOKING FOR TROUBLE. And there is my son’s businesses. There are no seminars this week, but he has meetings. I am his support staff. I am doing the best I can to not waste time.

So now I crochet during the hour or so ride to the office. The project I’m working on is for A TANGLED YARN and also a baby blanket for my coming soon grandson. I don’t dare work on the knit version while we’re driving since I worry about making a mistake. Crochet mistakes are easy to fix, knitting ones, not so much.
Today, my work space wasn’t going to be available for a while after we got to the office, so I took the time to get in a little exercise and get some more yarn for the crocheted baby blanket. Our office building is conveniently located across the street from a huge shopping mall. There are indoor and outdoor parts and best of there is a Barnes & Noble. There used to be several near where I live, but they both closed and the closest one is just far enough away for me to forget about it.

The mall also has just about every store you can think of including a Joann’s. I think it started out as two separate malls that were across the street from each other. Now the two malls are joined with a bridge over the street. The mall is so big and consulted that even with the map I could never figure out how to get to Joann’s.
Today I discovered the secret, you have to go through Macy’s to get to the corridor that leads to Joann’s. The round trip walk logged in at almost two miles.

When I finally had a place to work, I pulled out my laptop and I have found they are called laptops for a reason. I find it much easier to write when I have it on my lap. When I say easier, I’m not talking about the actual typing, though that is easier too, but that position feels more intuitive. The words seem to come more easily.

The hardest part for me is making all the transitions. I tend to be where I am when I’m there. I am not always looking at my phone or apple watch, or thinking about what I have to do later. When I walked through the mall, I was one hundred per cent there, enjoying all the people and things to look at. I don’t get to any mall that often so I made the most of it. Of course, then switching to writing mode required some doing. And switching out it as well. Once the story started unfolding it was hard to get it to stop just because it was time for me to make some phone calls.

By the time we leave for home, there will be heavy traffic and maybe a Starbucks stop. Now that the days are shorter, it will be too dark to crochet. But I always like looking out the window. It doesn’t matter that we pass the same spots over and over. There are always planes coming in as we pass LAX and sometimes they go right over us so close it seems the wheels will touch the roof of the SUV. And then there are the lights twinkling from the houses on the Santa Monica mountains. As the freeway get to the beginning of the Sepulveda Pass I always look up at the Getty museum perched on the side of the mountain. I flip the view and suddenly it’s as if I am standing on the balcony looking down at the passing cars.

The mountains we pass through after that are dark and mysterious at night and all there really is to see are the lines of red lights in front of us and diamond like white lights coming toward us on the other side of the freeway. And then the San Fernando Valley opens up before us with sparkles of lights. The red lights get brighter as all the cars’ brake lights come on. All the way across the Valley, there are a few lights dotting the Santa Susanna mountains.

When we switch to the 101, I know we are passing the Sepulveda basin even if I can’t see it. There is a big open space to collect water from the L.A. River if it ever rains again. Then a mini forest of trees that runs along Burbank Boulevard shows up as just dark outlines. The view soon changes to apartment buildings that hug the freeway.

As we pass all those windows, I start wondering about all the people who live behind them. Who are they? What are they doing? What are their dreams.